1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to user interface techniques for portable computing devices that audibly render performances and, in particular, to techniques suitable for user community interaction with captured and pitch-corrected vocal performances.
2. Description of the Related Art
The installed base of mobile phones and other portable computing devices grows in sheer number and computational power each day. Hyper-ubiquitous and deeply entrenched in the lifestyles of people around the world, they transcend nearly every cultural and economic barrier. Computationally, the mobile phones of today offer speed and storage capabilities comparable to desktop computers from less than ten years ago, rendering them surprisingly suitable for real-time sound synthesis and other musical applications. Partly as a result, some modern mobile phones, such as the iPhone™ handheld digital device, available from Apple Inc., support audio and video playback quite capably.
Like traditional acoustic instruments, mobile phones are intimate sound producing devices. However, by comparison to most traditional instruments, they are somewhat limited in acoustic bandwidth and power. Nonetheless, despite these disadvantages, mobile phones do have the advantages of ubiquity, strength in numbers, and ultramobility, making it feasible to (at least in theory) bring together artists for jam sessions, rehearsals, and even performance almost anywhere, anytime. The field of mobile music has been explored in several developing bodies of research. See generally, G. Wang, Designing Smule's iPhone Ocarina, presented at the 2009 on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Pittsburgh (June 2009). Recent experience with applications such as the Smule Ocarina™ and Smule Leaf Trombone: World Stage™ has shown that advanced digital acoustic techniques may be delivered in ways that provide a compelling user experience.
As digital acoustic researchers seek to transition their innovations to commercial applications deployable to modern handheld devices such as the iPhone® handheld and other platforms operable within the real-world constraints imposed by processor, memory and other limited computational resources thereof and/or within communications bandwidth and transmission latency constraints typical of wireless networks, significant practical challenges present. While some, though not all of these challenges involve signal processing techniques, encoding forms and data-transfer-bandwidth sensitive allocation of functionality throughout a distributed network of devices, to achieve a compelling user experience, improved user interface techniques are also needed.